incisive
adjective
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An incisive person doesn’t hem and haw—they get straight to the point. The original meaning of incisive, from around 1600, was "having a cutting edge or piercing point"; the modern meaning of "impressively direct and decisive" has been part of English since the mid-1800s. Incisive is a close relative of incisor, which refers to a front tooth typically adapted for cutting, so it's no surprise that incisive has a specific meaning in dentistry, describing that which is of, relating to, or situated near the incisors. Both incisive and incisor come from the Latin verb caedere, meaning "to cut." English is rich in cuttings from the fruitful stem of caedere: some examples to sink your teeth into are scissors, chisel, incise ("to cut into or engrave"), excise ("to remove by cutting"), incision ("cut" or "gash"), precise ("minutely exact"), and concise ("brief").
Examples of incisive in a Sentence
Tim Spiers, New York Times, 2 Sep. 2025
Marion Winik What starts as an investigation into the eroding social fabric of one small Ohio town becomes an incisive and illuminating look at what happens to people who feel abandoned as the world marches on.
—Lizz Schumer, People.com, 31 Aug. 2025
There is a far simpler reason Jack Grealish has looked more incisive in an Everton shirt and that is the opposition.
—Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025
Noah Baumbach’s painfully incisive portrait of a family divorce among a remarkably prickly family of Brooklyn intellectuals finds so many ways to showcase its characters’ most brittle sides.
—Joe Reid, Vulture, 29 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incisive
Cite this Entry
“Incisive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incisive. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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incisive
adjective
Medical Definition
incisive
adjective
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